How do you measure up?

How do you measure up?

Ever had one of those moments where you feel like you’re doing fine, like you measure up - but then discover you’re totally wrong and you’ve missed something critical?

my first driving test - I failed my first driving test. I though I was a pretty good driver, could do my three point turn, reverse around a corner, and park parallel. I though I was doing fine, I measured up. I thought I’d be going home with a pass.

But unfortunately for me, my dad had put one of those brown-envelope letters aside a few weeks back and then totally forgotten about it. And so the car tax had expired ages ago! I failed right there and then!

Have you ever had one of those moments? Where you think you have it all together - but there was something critical you’d missed?

We’re continuing our journey through Luke’s telling of the story of Jesus, the Gospel of Luke. We’ve been working through it bit by bit for over a year now - and today we come to a story which has one of these moments right at the heart. Why not find Luke chapter 18 with me and we’ll read together from verse 18. Luke 18:18 - page xxxxxx - Chapter 18 - big 18, verse 18, small 18. page xxxxxx. Jemimah is going to come and read for us this morning.

Luke 18:18-30

winners? [rich guy picture]: Sometimes these stories can feel very distant, very remote from us. But I’ve found this one seems far less foreign. In fact, I think we'd see pretty much the same thing happening to most of the successful, affluent bigwigs of our day. I think it’s pretty easy to imagine Jesus out in the street in the city of London, and a suited winner coming up to him, feeling super-successful, to ask for a top tip.

“What do I need to do to inherit eternal life?” - that is, what do I need to do to be sure of winning in the next life - just like I’m winning here?

“You know the commandments,” says Jesus, and rattles of a list - though, it’s worth us noticing that’s not the full list of the famous ten commandments he’s pulled out there by an means - it’s just a slice. You know what being good looks like, he says, you know what it says on the tin, you know the big no-no’s. So, have you been a good boy?

“Totally”, comes the reply, anticipating a pat on the back and a nice treat.

“just one more thing...” says Jesus, one teensey weensey little problem with that for you [and at this point, I think any reasonable person would have their stomach churning - uh oh] “Just one more thing: how about … how about you go sell everything and give it all to the poor.” Aaaaagh dagger to the heart. [action] “you’ll have treasure in heaven” Jesus adds. “then come follow me.” [fall down dead]

For the avoidance of doubt, that was not the answer the rich guy was looking for back then. It’s not the answer our suited winner of today would be looking for either. Actually, I think most of us would struggle with that answer if we were honest.

Sell everything? Everything? But… how’s that going to work? What about my retirement? How will I pay the bills? What about dinner tomorrow, for that matter, once I’ve sold everything in the fridge? I can’t just let go of everything Jesus - that’s silly. Impractical. Impossible.

The rich guy thought he’d done pretty well. But he’d missed one thing, he still lacked one thing - the critical thing, so much more important than anything else, than everything else.

But hang on - did you notice Jesus says he’s lacking one thing - v22 - but then gives him three things to do: sell, give, follow. One thing he lacks, three things to do. What’s going on here? He lacks one thing - but Jesus doesn’t tell him what it is. He gives him a three-part diagnostic that will show him what it is instead.

Let’s press pause right here for a moment. Why don’t we have a go at running that diagnostic [stethoscope] on ourselves? Just imagine for a minute that’s you, right there in the story, in the middle of an encounter with Jesus. And he turns to look at you and says “you still lack one thing.” gulp! And then he asks you for something massive, for the hardest, biggest thing you could imagine.

What might that be for you? What would Jesus put his finger on for you? For this man it was his riches, his stuff. But that’s not all of us. What would put the dagger in like that for you? Close your eyes and think for a moment: what would it be?

your xbox?

your friends?

your holiday?

your reputation?

your plans for your future?

wait 30s

How does it make you feel, imagining Jesus asking you to give that up? Makes me pretty queasy. It’s pretty terrifying. I’m sure there are things Jesus could ask each one of us for that would put us in the same spot as this rich ruler.

Why does Jesus make his big ask? Not so the rich ruler knows more boxes which need ticking, so he can try harder and do better. Jesus is running a diagnostic. He’s showing the rich ruler the one thing he lacks. He’s putting his finger on the real problem. Through Jesus’ radical call, the rich ruler gets to see his own heart. And ultimately it’s a heart that’s unwilling to bow the knee. A heart that won’t trust and obey. A heart that demands “I rule here, not God”.

That’s the one thing the rich ruler lacks: a soft heart that will bow to God as king.

He’s got the answer to his question, how to inherit eternal life. He needs a changed heart, a new heart. But instead of embracing that answer, he walks away, sad.

how hard is it?

What does Jesus have to say about all this? v24 - “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God.”

And how hard is it? Harder than getting a camel through the eye of a needle. Perhaps some of you will have heard the idea that there was a gate called the needle’s eye which was really small but you could just about get a camel through it at a push, down on its knees? That’s not what Jesus is getting at here.

He’s not trying to say that it’s hard, more like getting a flea through the eye of a needle. He’s not saying that it will be difficult - but at a push you could do it. If you get just the right angle, follow the right steps, you could do it. In fact, that’s pretty much the exact opposite of what he’s saying here.

His crazy picture of trying to get a camel through the eye of a needle is meant to communicate exactly what it seems to us at first glance: absolutely impossible. No way. Obviously so. Even to a child. Only a fool would ever think about even trying. In fact, in v27 Jesus quantifies exactly how hard it is, exactly what his camel and needle picture is meant to communicate: impossible.

It’s flat out impossible for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God. Bad news for the rich. Bad news indeed. pause

We might think, given the guy in view here, and Jesus’ particular diagnostic questions for him, that it’s bad news for the rich only. That’s it’s them alone who need to worry about Jesus’ pronouncement and picture. We might think that - but we’d be wrong. Notice in v26 Jesus’ hearers don’t just enjoy getting one up on the rich. ha-ha nanny nanny poo-poo bad luck you. It’s a fair cop, gov - they got what was coming to them. Down with the rich and hooray for the rest of us.

Instead the watching crowd ask “who then can be saved?” If this guy can’t make it, who can? Back in those days they would often understand riches as a sign of God’s favour - here’s a guy God’s already smiled upon. And no dice for him. But more than that, he was a pretty good guy who ticked a lot of boxes. And it wasn’t nearly enough. Jesus just set him an impossibly high bar to jump over. If that’s the standard, who can meet it? “who then can be saved?”

You see, the real problem, the one thing the rich ruler lacks, is a heart that will bow to God as king. And that’s a problem for us all. For him, his stuff held him captive and he couldn’t bear to let it go for God. Maybe that’s your problem too. Maybe that’s not your problem and you find stuff easy to master - but that’s not the heart of the matter: we all share this default which says “I rule here, not God.” Every heart, left to it’s own devices, ultimately says “no” to God - it’s just a question of when and where. Sure we might get some things right, we might look ok from the outside: “all these commandments I have kept since I was a boy!” - but inside it’s another story - inside we’re all that guy. That’s why it’s impossible for us to enter God’s kingdom - just like for this rich man.

Bad news: impossible with man. Flat out impossible.

But there’s good news here too: “what is impossible with man is possible with God” says Jesus

How is it possible with God? through heart surgery - the bible tells us he promises to take out our hearts of stone and to replace them with hearts of flesh. That’s a word picture, of course. Our hearts are flesh already - but they are deformed, twisted. They draw us away from God rather than towards him. And yet, even as we turn our backs on God, he reaches out to us and calls us to come to him, acknowledge our hearts are wrong, and ask him to do the impossible: to forgive us and to change us from the inside out.

Remember the diagnostic we ran earlier? There are things we don’t trust God with, things we value more than him, things which are more important to us. Things that mean we’re not on track to inherit eternal life. That’s a bit like seeing a warning light on the dashboard of your car. Something’s wrong, something’s not the way it should be. And in the end it will mean trouble.

Now I don’t know about you, but I’m fairly relaxed about warning lights. I like to take them in my stride. I figure lots of them come on by themselves - but they go off by themselves too. Last summer I had the battery warning light come on in my car. No big deal I figured. Just need to keep a jump pack handy to start the car if the battery gets too bad.

It was all going swimmingly until one day I was driving to an appointment and my dashboard started lighting up like the death star. ABS failure. Break problem. And the dreaded “check engine” light. Have you ever actually tried to check an engine? I lift the bonnet, and check, there’s an engine. Still present. Anyhow, I figured things were getting relatively serious and I should probably get the car to a garage or something at some point. And then the throttle just stopped working altogether. Push the pedal, no dice. I had no idea I had a drive-by-wire car! And then the power steering cut out and I discovered just how hard it was to turn the wheels to face the right direction without it. I just about got into the hard shoulder before it was all over.

What’s the lesson here? Don’t ignore the warning lights. Sure it might not burst into flames right away or anything but there is something wrong. And when Jesus gives us these diagnostic moments in our lives, these moments we hear his challenge to follow him more completely, and yet we discover we’d rather not - actually we’d rather walk away, don’t ignore that warning light. Our hearts aren’t right. They’re failing. It’s just a matter of time.

Don’t ignore the warning light: but understand you can’t fix it. Like me with the check engine light. Well, let’s be honest, really anything at all to do with cars. All way beyond me. The problem with our hearts is utterly beyond us. But it has to be fixed. We can’t just polish the outside, ignore the warnings, and carry on as if nothing happened. One day it will come to a head. It’s like there’s a huge product recall - on our hearts, on every heart - and we have to bring them back to the manufacturer for the fix.

That’s the thing Jesus has been trying to tell us for the last few weeks: We can’t make the grade. We can’t do enough - like the rich ruler here wants to know what he should do. We’re not sorted, we’re broken in a fundamental way. And we can’t fix it, we’re helpless. It’s only when we bring that back to God, and admit the mess we’re in - and the mess we’ve made - that we can find the way ahead.

Have you done that? Have you told God you know you haven’t made the grade, that you know you’re not right, that you know you need his forgiveness and his rewiring? He stands ready to help; he’s better than any garage: open 24x7, 365 days a year. You don’t need to book an appointment or wait in a queue or even pay. You just have to be willing to ask.

Are you ready to ask him for help today? It’s not complicated but if you would like someone to walk with you in that why not ask the person you came with, the person next to you, or me or Ewan? We’d love to help you take that step. Don’t ignore the warning light.

What if you’d already call yourself a follower of Jesus here today? What does this section have to say to you? Follow his call.

When we had a go at imagining Jesus’ diagnostic questions tailored to us, and how that might feel, if you’re anything like me I expect you found you’re pretty attached to things too. It gave the rich ruler a window into his heart - and it gives us a window into our own hearts too. We’re still a mixed bag. God’s heart surgery is both once-for-all and an ongoing process we’re still living through. Often we’re held back - sometimes it feels like trapped - by these things which seem so precious to us, held back from freely following where God would have us go.

Peter’s outburst at the end of our passage gives Jesus the opportunity to make a bold promise, one which we should reflect on, one which should encourage us into greater adventures. “We’ve left all we had to follow you,” Peter exclaims. “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Peter has done what the rich ruler wouldn’t, what he couldn’t: leave everything and follow Jesus - it’s a brilliant contrast to this story. Peter’s stepped out in faith and left behind what’s precious to him where we so often struggle. Peter’s left behind his whole life - is he wondering if it’s going to be worth it?

Jesus doesn’t leave him in any doubt. Following Jesus often means letting go of things - but it never leaves us poorer for it. It might cost you a relationship - or even a home. But you’ll find in following you receive many times as much. That’s a big promise, right? Many times as much. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, just in this age - the reason it’s truly worth anything and everything to obey Jesus’ call is his gift and promise of life forever. You can never lose by following Jesus. It’s impossible.

So if you’re a Jesus-follower here, why not take some time to reflect on what things you find hard to let go, what things hold you back, and whether you’re ok with that given Jesus’ promise here. Is there an adventure he might be calling you into instead?

60 seconds to reflect on what we’ve looked at today quietly by yourself - is there anything you want to change, anything you need to let go of? And then I’ll pray.